


All These Years

by ladyheroines



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Humor, Solas is terrible at life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-05-31 20:30:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6486343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyheroines/pseuds/ladyheroines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Solas has trouble figuring out many things about the modern world. One that he hoped would not be an issue was his age. He should have known that when people live such short lives they would be obsessed with the number of years one has left.<br/>(Inspired by a tumblr post linked in the notes)</p>
            </blockquote>





	All These Years

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off of [this tumblr post](http://ladyheroines.tumblr.com/post/142382305713/solasanddagnatho-spicyshimmy-solas). I saw it and just had to do something with it.  
> Selain Lavellan is my Inquisitor who romanced Solas. If you would like you can find out more about her on [this page of my tumblr.](http://ladyheroines.tumblr.com/characters)

“I hope you do not find this rude, but I often have difficulty telling the ages of elves. How old are you, Solas?” Cassandra asked one day, as they wait in the stables for Lavellan to come out from meeting with her advisors. They were about to embark on a journey to the Hinterlands together and it seemed as good a time as any to establish a line of communication with her companions.

Varric had not shown up yet, but she felt he already took part in communicating a bit too much.

“Fourty four,” Solas replied, not turning away from where he was busy bridling his heart. Cassandra blinked in surprise, having expected a lower answer. The nature of elves slow aging seems to be particularly strong in Solas’s blood.

“I did not expect you to be so much older than me,” she settled on saying, not wanting to offend this elf that she barely knew. She turned back to saddling her plow horse.

\---

“You talk about your youth like it was a century ago,” Varric teased, elbowing the elf while they waited for Selain – he would have given the Herald a nickname, but seeing as everyone called her a holy title for a religion she did not believe in he figured that her first name for once would be more welcomed – to finish breaking down the wall with the Seeker. The brick was thick and the rogue had hung far out of the damage range for debris along with their mage.

“Many years have passed. Time blurs all memories,” Solas said, vaguely, like a character from a novel nobody would be able to get through for all the exposition.

“How old are you exactly?” Varric responded, rolling his eyes. He was not actually asking, he just wanted Solas to know he sounded like a dusty tome.

“Fourty,” Solas responded before breezing away to join the Herald and Seeker picking through the remains of the wall. Varric was honestly shocked to have an answer, filing it away with the rest of his knowledge about the apostate. He looked younger, sure, but it definitely fitted his personality. And constant old man griping.

Solas looked back at him and furrowed his brow. His expression looked like he just heard Varric’s thought. Varric would not deny it if he _had_ somehow managed to read his mind; the elf had to know what a gripe he sounded like sometimes.

\---

Selain reached out and plucked the book from Solas’s hands. Solas, for his part, just slowly blinked and turned his attention to her like she obviously wanted.

After she had come into his small room in Haven and sat on his desk he had asked what she needed, but when she said she did not come for anything he turned his attention back to his book. That was unacceptable.

“We should get to know each other better. We are trying to fight the very sky together after all,” she said, giving him her best dazzling smile.

“We already know quite a bit about each other. You do have a tendency to interrogate all your companions. And overshare,” Solas pointed out, but the corner of his mouth tilted up.

“Yes, but there is still so much I do not know. I don’t even know how old you are!” she rebuked, gesturing vaguely to her right. On her opposite side, Solas shifted in his seat as he turned his gaze away and began to put away his book. He placed a placemarker inside and stood to deposit it on the small endtable he had in the tiny room.

“I am thirty six,” he responded.

“Oh! I had no idea,” Selain responded, pondering over the age difference. Eight years older than her. That was quite a gap. Her mother would be ashamed if she found out how she felt about man so much older than her.

Who was she kidding, she was going to pursue him anyway.

\---

“Charter, did you collect the information about the apostate that I asked you to gather?” Leliana asked, arranging papers of reports that have begun coming in as the Inquisition began to establish its presence. She knew enough about Solas to believe he was not directly involved in the explosion and could be trusted for the moment to lend help to the Inquisition, but she needed far more information about him to find out if he could actually be _trusted_.

“Yes. He grew up in a small village to the North. He did not specify where, and by that point if I asked for specifics I am certain he would be suspicious. He said he was fourty eight-“ Charter began to respond.

“Fourty eight? Really?” Leliana stopped her, looking up from her table as her brows furrowed. That seemed too high a number, even given elves natural resistance to aging.

Charter nodded. “I could ask around Haven and see if he has opened up to anyone other than the Herald, but from what I have seen he avoids starting conversation with most people,” Charter responded.

“That may not be necessary. Please, continue with your report,” Leliana waved her off.

\---

“I suppose I should have known you had files on all of us. Where’s mine?” Selain asked as she flicked through Dorian’s file. Perhaps despite reason, she trusted the easygoing mage, but the file could contain important information. She could not pretend to be fully comfortable with a man who had grown up surrounded by elven slaves.

“It is in the box with the files of the rest of your companions,” Leliana responded, pointing to the box she had retrieved Dorian’s file from to show her. Unlike the others, she had not questioned Selain’s decision to let him stay on, but she had promised she would present her with any information she found out about him.

She rooted through the box, trying to find her file. She paused when she saw the envelope marked ‘Solas.’ It felt invasive, but there should not be any important information inside that he has not told her at this point. They were rather close.

Her cheeks heated as she remembered the kiss with the Fade pressing around them, quickly picking up the file and opening it to cover her expression from the highly observant Leliana without giving it thorough thought. She knew by now that her only hope in keeping her emotions secret from the other woman was to keep her face entirely out of view.

She blinked at the information on the page before her. There were several pages, but the first one had only basics on it. One piece of information caught her eye in particular:

 **_Age_ ** _: 48._

That was absolutely not what he told her. And definitely not accurate. Even without hair to show graying with age he would have aged visibly more if he was even close to that age. So why did he lie to Leliana, and why would she believe that?

\---

“Varric, can humans just not tell the ages of elves?” Selain asked him one day.

“Humans cannot even tell elves _apart_ ,” Varric points out. “To be fair, I have the same problem with humans.” He glanced up from where he was busying writing a letter to Merrill, mentally noting that he should tell her she would love the Inquisitor. Selain looked deep in thought, frowning at the wall from where she lounged on his bench, leaning back against the table.

“Why do you ask?” he questioned, noting her slightly troubled expression.

“Leliana thought Solas was fourty eight,” she responded, turning her frown towards him. Varric snorted loudly enough that a nearby Orlesian noble sent him a look of disgust before sweeping away.

“Okay, an extra eight years is a pretty obvious difference,” he admitted, putting in the note about the Inquisitor before finishing the letter with his signature.

“Eight?” Selain exclaimed. “He’s thirty six! He told me!”

Varric frowned at the letter for a minute, unable to figure out why they all thought such widely varying numbers. It made no sense for someone to make up their age. Unless…

He glanced up at Selain’s slightly distressed expression and chuckled. “Selain, he is self-conscious about his age. And most likely the difference between you two,” he pointed out, politely ignoring the way her cheeks flushed at the implication. She turned to stare into the fire, cheeks blazing just as brightly.

“Oh,” she said weakly.

“Does it honestly change how you feel about him?” Varric asked as he jotted down the address for Merrill’s letter.

Selain flushed darker, if possible.

“I may be in too deep,” she admitted.

\---

Leliana’s spy asked for his age and he panicked. He knew little about the lifecycles of either humans or elves currently.

“Fourty eight,” he responded coolly. The elf raised her eyebrow in response and he knew he had said a number too high. Things were worse for elves than he thought if their lifespans were so short.

\---

Fourty four he told the Seeker. She vocally commented her surprise, though she showed it on her face as well. Still too high, he reasoned. He would bring it down some the next time someone asked.

\---

When Varric asked, he went for fourty. A solid number, plain enough to perhaps skate by whereas before he went for specifics to seem more realistic. When he glanced at the dwarf he looked slightly dazed. _Still too high_. He needed to get this right.

\---

He could not very well ask how long people lived on average. He was under the impression Dalish elves did not tend to live past fifty from Selain’s stories of her clan, but that was all he knew. When she asked he picked a lower number for that reason and one other that he would always deny to himself.

She was younger than him by more years than she could possibly imagine, but the ones she could had to still matter to her. He should not have been altering her perception of him for such personal reasons. He should be concerned with keeping his secrets hidden.

It was on the way to Crestwood that he realized how fully he had failed at his goal and what he truly had to do. He could not stand to look back at her as he walked away from her, leaving her all alone.


End file.
